What A Year!

So here we are, coming to the end of another year, a time where it is bloody cold, and wet and lists of albums of the year are created. This past year has been just a little bit mental, what with graduating, and my first ever Glastonbury, and working at the British Museum and starting a masters. Not to mention all of the amazing gigs I’ve been to in the past twelve months. I have been a bit lazy in blogging recently, what with huge amounts of work and very very little sleep I just haven’t had the time. It culminated in yesterday being an entire day of sleep, I barely left my bed, only for food and the toilet. Anyway, so this is a list, in some sort of order, well, the number one is my favourite album of the year, but the rest are in no particular order, because it is so difficult to do that.

Right, we can start with Frank Turner, good old Frank, he will always be one of my favourite artists ever, and England, Keep My Bones was another solid piece of recording from him. Particular songs that I recommend are If Ever I Stray, Peggy Sang the Blues and I Am Disappeared. I love Frank and hope he comes and plays Liverpool again soon, he’s always touring so with any luck…

The next album of note is Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues. An amazing second album, all harmonies and ‘oohs’ and ‘aaahs’ it is has a euphoria to it that will always remind me of the past summer. Songs such as Sim Sala Bim and Battery Kinzie are the Fleet Foxes we all know and love but then you get something like the epic The Shrine/ An Argument, which tips the album into awesomeness.

We now come to Bright Eyes, The People’s Key. I love this album, like properly adore it, maybe not as much as I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, but still, almost as much. Especially after seeing Conor on stage at Glasto singing his heart out to One For You, One For Me. This album feels like a deep exploration into the meaning of life, ambient music juxtaposed with tracks such as Haile Selassie, Shell Games, and One For You, One For Me.

Lanterns on the Lake – Gracious Tide, Take Me Home, this album is pure shoegazery, post rock genius. I adore it and always will I think, they were one of the best bands I saw live this year, I have already talked about their gig in a different post. The album sweeps you away, listen to it lying on your bed with headphones on at full blast and it will get into your bones! ‘Lungs Quicken’, ‘Ships in the Rain’ and ‘I Love You, Sleepyhead’, are my picks of the album, although to get the best of it listen to the entire album in one go.

Bon Iver – Bon Iver, this is by far my favourite album of the year. Bon Iver has grown from Justin Vernon in a hut in the wilderness to a fully-fledged band with the album ebbing and flowing along, crashing here and there. Listening to the album is like walking along on a beach in the middle of winter, frost biting, breath hanging in the air, but you are wrapped up warm in a woolly jumper, coat, scarf and hat, hands jammed into your pockets. That is how this album makes me feel and it is wonderful. My favourite track on the album is Holocene, as I have said in a previous post this song haunts me, it is beautiful. And the rest of the album too! I don’t know quite what it is that I love so much, maybe the juxtaposition of what is seemingly stark but actually very warm music? Or is it the blatant honesty of his lyrics? It is just wonderful.

Here is a list of all the other albums which I have adored this year, in no particular order but I just don’t have the time to write about everything now unfortunately, I have about 8000 words to write in the next three weeks for essays due in in the new year, fun times ahead for me; anyway here they are :-

Girls – Father, Son and Holy Ghost
British Sea Power – Valhalla Dancehall
Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat – Everything’s Getting Older
Wild Flag – Wild Flag
Peggy Sue – Acrobats
The Miserable Rich – Miss You In the Days
Yuck – Yuck
Tom the Lion – The Adventures of Tom the Lion
Other Lives – Tamer Animals
Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know
Emmy the Great – Virtue
The Leisure Society – Into the Murky Water
The Low Anthem – Smart Flesh
Walls – Coracle
King Creosote and Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

And here is some alternative festive cheer in the form of Fika Records Advent Calender, lots of fantastic Christmas songs to download for free, some of my favourites are here;